TTA ridership up with higher gas prices

BY KATIE QUINONEZ

The Tri-State Transit Authority's bus ridership is up 17,913 trips for year to date, a .03 percent increase.

Ridership for the month of January 2011 showed an additional 3, 112 customers boarded TTA's buses and Dial-A-Ride vans, according to the performance report. General manager and CEO Paul Davis said the increase in ridership is due to the recent increase in gas and diesel costs.

Davis said TTA continues to remain under the three dollar budget allocated for diesel prices. He said though this may change with increasing gas prices, unless gas prices spike to at least five dollars, TTA will remain under the budget.
Davis recently attended the American Public Transit Association's legislative conference in Washington, D.C. where the following topics were discussed:

•  Re-authorization of the Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act, the transportation bill that expired in fiscal year 2009. When it expired Congress passed a Continuing Resolutions to fund the program until April 2011. The resolution eliminates the Federal Railroad Administration's program that helps railroads pay for new safety technology, which would cut $6 billion from the current budget. 
• TTA's proposition of combining several grant programs to reduce the administrative duties required to manage these grants. This would reduce costs by lessening the burden on transit personnel.
• The urbanized area issue regarding Charleston and Huntington. TTA recommended the two cities be exempted from the Census Bureau's plan to combine the areas.

During the March board meeting, members briefly discussed layoff contingency plans. Davis said in the event layoffs would occur, they would most likely happen over a three-year period. Davis said layoffs would be a last resort and that the agency would most likely increase bus fares or eliminate less productive bus routes first.